The novel depicts the colonial encounter between Rani Chennamma and the authorities of the East India Company around 1824 for land and political power. Although the Rani put up a heroic fight with the East India Company authorities and succeeded in killing Mr. Thackeray, the Political Agent of South India and Collector of Dharwad, she was betrayed by her own courtiers later, and consequently, she was defeated by the East India Company authorities headed by the Commissioner of the Deccan, Mr. Chaplin. Then her kingdom of Kittur was annexed to the British Raj, and she was imprisoned in her own fort at Bailahongala, where she breathed her last in 1829 after suffering from nostalgia for the past glory of her kingdom.